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When I first started teaching, I knew I wanted my kiddos to engage with text in a meaningful and purposeful way. Not just a worksheet that went with what we were reading... But a real way for my students to share their thoughts, ideas, and opinions as it related to what we were reading. My solution? Reading Response Journals or RRJ as I like to call them.

Reading Response Journals

So many of you have asked about this simple journal! I thought it's about time I share the ins and outs with you on why, year-after-year, I still have my students work in their Reading Response Journals or RRJ's.

What are Reading Response Journals?

Simply put, a Reading Response Journal is a place for students to write, draw, and share their opinions, ideas, or respond to text we have read in class. There's nothing fancy about these. They are just cheapy spiral notebooks I buy at BTS time for like 15 cents each. Then, we make a cover and keep them in our desks. You can grab the cover I use for FREE right here.

But let me set you straight on one thing about our Reading Response Journals...

They are NOT an Interactive Notebook
They are NOT an Interactive Notebook
Don't get me wrong, I "sorta" like using ISNs in math and science. (And by sorta I mean if there wasn't so much cutting and pasting with trash all over the floor...) But this notebook is much more casual then that.
Rarely are we cutting and pasting into it.
It is used as a grab and go, a quick write, share my opinion, write a sentence or paragraph, notebook.

How Does it Fit into my Routine?

Well that is the best part of a Reading Response Journal... it's a chameleon of journals. We use it for quick writes on a specific topic, or as a place to share our learning from particular unit. But most importantly it is the place where we WRITE ABOUT TEXT.We use them before reading, during reading, and after reading. We also use them during center time, and sometimes we even use them during Science and Social Studies!

(Read more about how we used our RRJ to improve our sentence writing HERE)

Reading and writing go hand in hand. We expect our students to absorb so much from the text that they are exposed to yet, we rarely give them time to process, sort, or "think through" what they've read in a non threatening way. Reading Response Journals bridge the gap between reading a text and writing to the text in a logical and easy way.

How to Use Reading Response Journals in Your Classroom

Here's a peak at a few ways I've used these journals in both second and third grade. For Quick Writes...

This is the main reason I started using Reading Response Journals. I wanted a place for students to write down their thoughts quickly... No passing out papers, no big long drawn out process... just a quick and dirty write up.

Here, we had just read the story, "Animals Should Definitely NOT Wear Clothing". This book is perfect for making an inference, but I wanted to engaged my kids before we started reading, so I had them tell me why they thought animals shouldn't wear clothing. This was a simple way to get them thinking without all the hoopla!

For Responding to Text... This is by far how we use our notebooks the most. After reading a text (and possibly SNOTS-ing it up!) We'll use what we've read for writing about it.

You can read more about this activity here!
For Retelling...
Our Reading Response Journals are the perfect place for students to retell a story in their own words.

Since our RRJ are always in our desks, they are the ideal spot for us to take notes that can be used later.

Here, we took notes on how animals clean themselves based on a book we had read.

Later, we used the chart to compare two of the animals.

I love using our Reading Response Journals as an easy place to make reference sheet for new skills we're learning!

Here, we were learning about the suffixes -less and -ful. After discussing these two common word parts, we made a quick reference page for when/how to use them and even did some practice!

Here's another reference sheet we had made for adding -er and -est to words.

I LOVE integrating Science and Social Studies into our literature block. It just brings the learning alive! So sometimes our RRJ are used to write about different processes we've learned about.

Here, during our Moon and Space study, we used our new found understanding of the moon to write about how the Moon and Earth are different.

We even took some notes on the Constitution after learning more about it on Constitution Day.

How to Grade Reading Response Journals

You know I am the queen of easy. When it comes to grading, I follow the "less is more" mentality. (You can read more about that here)

I'm sure most teachers would say, "Oh I collect their notebooks every week to check and correct every single page we've done.." and you know what? Maybe you are that teacher and all I have to say is good for you... But for me, the LAST thing I need is another thing to grade or collect!

That's why checking my student's Reading Response Journals is always done on the fly. If I am spot checking their work, I'll usually just put a star on the page that says, "hey- I saw this".

If I'm looking for something in particular, as students finish their writings, I'll go around and check what they've written.

Here we had documented how Officer Buckle reacts to different events in the story, "Officer Buckle and Gloria". A check plus means they've got it!

As I check over student's work, I can easily see who's met the objective and who still needs coaching. This allows me to reteach and provide immediate feedback as needed. No need to lug home tons of notebooks for review. Ain't nobody got time for dat! I also use the information that I can gather from their responses for forming my small group lessons later in the week. Class struggled with finding the main idea of a paragraph? Looks like I can cover that in my small group.

So, those are the ins and outs of my FAVORITE routine. Do you have your students keep a Reading Response Journal? If so, tell me what you have them write!

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The How and Why of Reading Response Journals

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When I first started teaching, I knew I wanted my kiddos to engage with text in a meaningful and purposeful way. Not just a worksheet that went with what we were reading... But a real way for my students to share their thoughts, ideas, and opinions as it related to what we were reading.

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Students at a young age need to begin experiencing retelling stories. Once a story is read to them, they should be encouraged to retell the events that occurred in the story. This activity should start during kindergarten, when students can use predictable text, such as The Three Little Pigs or Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?. Older students can also benefit from retelling stories, using more complex texts such as The Diary of Ann Frank. The importance of retelling stories is that it allows students to learn to organize and describe events, which enhances reading comprehension.

Story retelling provides ELLs an opportunity to analyze stories and build oral language as they acquire related vocabulary (Schienkman, 2004). Using pictures to retell a story can be highly beneficial to second language learners. It provides visual support that scaffolds comprehension as ELLs learn new vocabulary. Retelling stories helps ELLs begin to understand sequence, plot, and characterization as they build vocabulary and comprehension skills. But most important of all, it provides the fundamental skills ELL students need to begin retelling stories on paper.

Classroom application

Justine Brandi-Muller is teacher in New Jersey Berkeley Heights Public Schools. She has been using this best practice in her classroom for the past six years. She begins the activity by creating pictures that depict characters, main idea, plot, setting, and other important components of the book she is going to read. Justine then reads the story for the first time, using pictures and other props when appropriate.

During the first reading, she stops to explain the pictures and deliberately repeats new vocabulary words for the ELL students to have a better understanding. To continue the lesson, she has the students retell the story in small groups in English without pictures (and if a child finds it easier she allows him/her to tell the story in Spanish). During the second reading, Justine has her students use the pictures and new vocabulary words to retell the story in English.

Justine has found that students love to see how much more they remember once they've been provided with a visual clue, such as the pictures. She describes this classroom activity as "a fun, non-threatening way to read in English and have ELLs understand the meaning." She has discovered that her ELL students have become more enthusiastic and willing to take a chance and read aloud; she has also observed that they seem to remember the vocabulary better with this method.
Topics Online Magazine: Folktales
Folktales from around world, including tales from Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Scholastic: Myths from Around the World
Stories and myths from around the world, organized by region.
Story Arts: International Folktales
An online library of short international folktales for children to retell.
Pro Teacher: Storytelling Lesson Plans
Links to storytelling activities and lesson plans for teachers.

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Students at a young age need to begin experiencing retelling stories. Once a story is read to them, they should be encouraged to retell the events that occurred in the story. This activity should start during kindergarten, when students can use predictable text, such as The Three Little Pigs or Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?.

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Adler, C. (2004). Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension.

Armbruster, B. B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (2001) Put reading first: The research building blocks for teaching children to read kindergarten through grade three. Washington, DC: The U.S. Department of Education.

Boulineau, T., Fore, C, Hagan-Burke, S. and Burke, M. (2004). Use of Story-Mapping to Increase the Story-Grammar Text Comprehension of Elementary Students with Learning Disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Spring, 2004), pp. 105-121

Nell K. Duke, P. David Pearson, Stephanie L. Strachan, and Alison K. Billman (2011) Essential Elements of Fostering and Teaching Reading Comprehension . From What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction (4th ed.), International Reading Association.

Nell K. Duke, Alessandra E. Ward, and P. David Pearson (2021). The Science of Reading Comprehension Instruction , The Reading Teacher, Vol 74, No. 6 (May-June 2021).

Dunst, C, Simkus, A, Hamby, D. (2012). Children's Story Retelling as a Literacy and Language Enhancement Strategy. CELLreviews 5(4). Asheville, NC: Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute, Center for Early Literacy Learning.

Santa, C., Havens, L., & Valdes, B. (2004). Project CRISS: Creating independence through student owned strategies 3rd Edition. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.

Timothy Shanahan et al., Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade (2010). U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences.

Trabasso, T., & Bouchard, E. (2002) Teaching readers how to comprehend text strategically. In C. Block and M. Pressley, (Eds.) Comprehension instruction: Research-based practices (pp. 176-200). NY: Guilford Press.

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Story maps use graphic organizers to help students learn the elements of a book or story. The most basic story maps focus on the beginning, middle, and end of the story. More advanced organizers focus more on plot or character traits.

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Felt Board Retell: Promoting Comprehension with an Oral Retell (Virtual Tour)

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Adler, C. (2015). Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension. Retrieved October 2, 2015, from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/seven-strategies-teach-students-text-comprehension

CMSESL's Channel. (2012, March 19). Kristen Baker's ESL Class - First Month with iPads! Retrieved October 2, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odgDDGmYv7I

Edutopia. (2011, December 6). How to Engage Underperforming Students. Retrieved June 12, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=96&v=y0H5XsZ1gzA

Edutopia. (2014, August 18). Travel Journals: Student-Created Textbooks. Retrieved June 12, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkjHCBo0TIU

Harton, J. (2014, January 17). How To Use Graphic Organizers. Retrieved October 2, 2015.

OnDemandInstruction. (2013, January 2). What is a Graphic Organizer. Retrieved October 2, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IutSbdYw0Kk

The Balanced Literacy Diet. (2011, November 29). Four Square Retelling: A Graphic Organizer for Retelling Narratives. Retrieved October 2, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9dq5rfPRSc

Wright, W. E. (2010). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia: Caslon Pub.

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Adler, C. (2015). Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension. Retrieved October 2, 2015, from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/seven-strategies-teach-students-text-comprehension CMSESL's Channel. (2012, March 19). Kristen Baker's ESL Class - First Month with iPads! Retrieved October 2, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odgDDGmYv7I Edutopia. (2011, December 6). How to Engage Underperforming Students. Retrieved June 12, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=96&v=y0H5XsZ1gzA Edutopia.

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Many a teacher has asked a student to "tell about the story" only to be met with a blank stare. This may be particularly true for students with autism. Some students with autism simply do not have the communication skills to be able to answer the question, others don't know how to communicate the information they do have, and still others don't understand enough about the story to respond.

Reading comprehension is often a concern for the teachers of students with autism. Many teachers tell me that their students with autism can read but that "they don't understand anything." It is always tricky to respond to such statements as many students with autism do understand what they read but cannot effectively express what they know. That is, some students with autism only appear incapable of comprehending text. Because students with autism have movement and communication differences, they may struggle to answer questions and express ideas in traditional ways. Some students might be unable to "find" the words needed to answer comprehension questions (or any question for that matter). Others may know the words but be unable to answer questions when directly asked to do so. It may be hard for some teachers to understand that a student could fluently read a text, know exactly what it means, and be unable to communicate that information. And those who do understand these gaps may be stumped at how to engineer other ways to help the student show what she knows.

If a teacher is confused about a student's ability to comprehend, he or she should give the students many ways to demonstrate understanding. When asking comprehension questions, teachers may want to try the following strategies: give students plenty of time to answer (even a minute or more); say the questions and present them in written form; or let the student write their answer or circle it rather than saying it. The teacher might also try approaches that make the interaction more informal and less direct. Some learners are more successful when questions are asked using a funny voice or foreign accent or when a prop such as a puppet or microphone are used in the lesson (Williams, 1996).

If students seem completely unable to answer comprehension questions, teachers might offer other ways to show understanding. They might ask students to draw or point to pictures (which may also be challenging for students with autism), use signs, gestures, or pantomime to "illustrate" a scene from a book, make diorama of a key scene, or create a collage or painting related to the text.

If a teacher uses all of these strategies and still cannot assess a student's comprehension, the student should not lose access to books, reading, and opportunities to learn academic content. Students with autism often demonstrate understanding in their own way. For instance, a high school teacher who works with a young man with significant disabilities, began reading him Thinking in Pictures(Grandin, 1995), the autobiography of a woman with autism. Before he was introduced to the book, the student was able to remain seated for no more than fifteen minutes at a time (for reading purposes or for any activity). When the teacher read him a book on autism, however, the student sat rapt for more than fifty minutes. The teacher reported that she had never seen him sit so still or so quietly. The teacher interpreted this behavior to mean that he was interested in and able to understand the text. She then chose other books to read to the young man and found that the student had a similar positive reaction to other texts she chose- especially those related to autism and disability studies. While she continuously worked to assess his comprehension of the text, the student did not lose access to books while she searched for new ways to learn about what he understood.

But what about those students who do need comprehension support? Having shared some information about students who know more than they can demonstrate, it must be acknowledged that many students with autism (and those without) need help comprehending text (Rosinski, 2002). Students with autism, for instance, may have problems making predictions; visualizing the events of a text; and identifying a purpose for reading. As one mother learned, some students with autism also have a hard time separating main ideas from details:

In fifth grade my son was assigned to write a paper on Benedict Arnold. When I looked at his rough draft, I noticed that he had included all of the important facts about Arnold's life except for one - the fact that he had betrayed the Revolutionary Army to the British for 10,000 pounds and a commission in the Royal Navy! I asked him whether he hadn't left out something important, to which he replied, "But all of it is important!" (Rosinski, 2002)

The following comprehension strategies may help some students gain comprehension skills and improve their ability to read and communicate about written material.

Build background knowledge

Student comprehension can also be boosted when the teacher helps the learner build background knowledge. Many students with disabilities, in particular, need this type of support as these learners are often excluded from the very activities that help students build background knowledge (e.g., socializing with peers, field trips).

Presenting background information related to the focus topic can help students better understand the text. For example, teachers might show students a movie related to the text, tell the learner a story related to the text, or help the student create connections between his or her experiences and the topic of the text. The teacher might also:

brainstorm with the learner and write ideas on chart paper

share personal stories on the topic

ask questions about the topic

make connections between the topic and a student's special interests

share other books related to the text

Perhaps the most significant support that can be offered is to include the student in the typical routines and activities of school life. Students will build "background knowledge" daily when they are included in the social life (e.g., recess, art class, locker routines) and the academic life of the school (e.g., math class, orchestra, academic clubs) and when their instruction is provided alongside their same-age peers.

Think aloud

To boost comprehension, teachers can help students monitor their own understanding as they read. One common strategy teachers often use in a whole-class format is the think-aloud (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000). A think-aloud involves the teacher reading a text to the class and modeling his or her own comprehension strategies such as asking questions, making inferences, determining importance, and making connections to personal background knowledge. The text or selected passage should contain information, concepts, and words that students may find difficult. The students should be encouraged to read the passage silently as the teacher is reading aloud.

A teacher might start reading a book by saying, "The title of the book is Running for Class President so I think it will be about kids being involved in student council or some kind of student government. When I look at the picture on the cover, I think maybe the main characters will be a boy and a girl. The cover has a picture of a classroom, so I think a lot of this book will take place in a school."

Teachers may even write their thoughts on chart paper so students can see and hear the process.

Drama

Comprehension can also be bolstered when teachers teach a story or a piece of text using drama. A teacher might have students act out parts of a textbook or a passage in a short story.

This technique is often used in lower grades, but it can be very effective in both middle school and high school classrooms as well. When students with autism study literature in the upper grade levels, they may have some difficulty understanding the motivations of characters in a story. This problem occurs because some of these learners have difficulty identifying and articulating emotions in certain contexts. Watching peers act out scenes from literature can help students with autism and others pair dialogue with appropriate facial expressions and voice tone. These scenes, therefore, can help learners better understand the meaning of the story.

Teachers may choose to use different types of drama for different lessons. Pantomime (Keefe, 1996), dramatic reading, and full-story performance are all types of drama that can be used in the classroom to enhance student comprehension and enjoyment.

Reciprocal teaching

Students can also be asked to help each other understand text. Some teachers ask learners to engage in "reciprocal teaching" (Palinscar & Brown, 1984). Reciprocal teaching is essentially a dialogue that takes place between teachers and students. The dialogue is structured by the use of four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. The teacher and students take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading this dialogue.

Once students are comfortable with the strategies, they are invited to become "the teacher" and conduct reciprocal teaching dialogues with new material. At this point the teacher's role shifts from providing direct instruction to facilitating student interaction, monitoring progress, and providing feedback. As students become more skilled with the strategy, they can work in pairs or small groups to coach one another, ask questions, summarize, predict, clarify, and think aloud about what they are reading.

All students, but particularly those with autism, may need to see this strategy modeled more than once. Since students with autism are typically quite visual, the teacher may consider videotaping a reciprocal teaching lesson and allowing individual students to take the tape home for viewing.

Some learners may "fail" comprehension assessments because, in part, they are uncomfortable with the direct nature of question/answer interactions. For this reason, some students may respond well to the retelling strategy. Retelling is a comprehension strategy as well as a tool for assessment.

A retelling is done by the reader after he or she has read or heard a story. The student is asked to "tell everything" he or she can about story or text. Retelling reinforces story structure and the language and imagery used in the text and provides more information about a reader's understanding than comprehension questions or other traditional assessments. By repeating the story with one's own words, a student can learn to attend to the story elements during the initial reading and gain strategies for organizing his or her own thinking.

To help struggling readers engage in retelling the teacher might:

model the strategy

have other students model the strategy

allow the student to doodle or draw part of the retelling

give the student illustrations or photographs to use in the retelling

give the student specific strategies to use in retelling

encourage the student to take notes or draw pictures during the initial storytelling

allow the student to type or write the retelling if this is easier

allow small groups of students to retell a story together

have the student retell the story by completing a story map or other graphic organizer

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Tell Me About the Story: Comprehension Strategies for Students on the Autism Spectrum

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Reading comprehension is often a concern for the teachers of students with autism. The comprehension strategies described in this article may help some students gain comprehension skills and improve their ability to read and communicate about written material.

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A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet Vanessa Levin of Pre-K Pages and Deborah Stewart of Teach Preschool. They "wowed" me with their experiences, love, and excitement for preschool during their presentation entitled, "Wow Your Crowd with a Read Aloud" at NAEYC. As a reflection of their presentation and Vanessa's blog post dated 11-19-2014, I began to think about the strategies they shared and how they relate to children with developmental disabilities, limited language, social deficits and/or Autism.

The first strategy they discussed was stamina (which I totally bought into to!)They described stamina as the length of time children can listen to a story or look at a book independently. This concept is huge when thinking about children with disabilities. Often attention spans are shorter than typically developing children.

When choosing a read aloud book for my special needs preschool classroom, I always kept the attention span of my lowest level students in mind.In the beginning, our books were very short and using high interests. For those that needed it, I would also incorporate a task strip to help them know how long the book was and how long they would be sitting.

In the book, a frog eats different bugs with his sticky tongue and then gets eaten by a fish at the end of the story.To help students who have a hard time sitting, I would offer them little images of each bug and animal that gets eaten in the story and they would attach it to a task strip.

Although we want our students to be actively engaged during a read aloud with the book itself and the reader, some students are not able to sit and attend without knowing how much work they have to do. The icons and task strip help reduce anxiety and support success as they know exactly how long the story will be.

This strategy is based off of the TEACCH program.The TEACCH program is designed to support children with Autism.The idea is that the activity, in this case a book, is visually structured so the students know how much work they have, and when the work will be finished.

Now moving on to the second strategy shared by Vanessa and Deborah... vocabulary.They shared, " when children understand the vocabulary used in a read aloud they will be more engaged and you will be better able to capture their attention." Makes total sense! However, with some of our special needs students, vocabulary is very limited.

In some situations in order to support a student's understanding of the vocabulary in a read aloud, we play games in small groups or at direct instruction to prepare them for a read aloud later in the day.

For example with The Icky Sticky Frog book, I may have students match photos of the bugs and animals that are in the story to icons of bugs and animals that are in the story.

This helps students generalize that a fish can look like this or like this but it is still a fish.

This activity often helps with IEP goals related to increasing the number of words a students knows, says and/or understands.It also supports the student in making sense of picture icons and photographs so they know that pictures and icons have meaning in order to use them for individual schedules and choice boards.

Leading me to another version of the same thing, for students whom do not yet understand icons we use three-dimensional objects to help with making sense of vocabulary.
Here is a sample of a three-dimensional vocabulary task. Instead of matching icons and pictures, the student matches objects to pictures that are magnetically attached to spaces in a muffin tin.

Next up... Repetition." While reading the same book over and over may not appeal to the adult doing the reading, it is important for increasing comprehension and vocabulary." -Vanessa Levin

When working with students with special needs, I often introduce new books at direct instruction or in the small group literacy center and then repeat the story as part of read aloud at large group.The idea is that I am setting students up for success.Many students with special needs struggle in large group settings. By introducing a book at small group or during one-on-one direct instruction, I can expose them to a book to support comprehension and prepare them for success in a whole group setting.

Another option is to work on adding imitation and repetitive phrases in small group and in one-on-one settings.Many students with special needs have limited verbal and gross motor imitation skills. By reading a story in a small group setting, I can teach them the words and actions.For example with the Icky Sticky Frog, we could work on sticking our tongues out when the frog does it in the story and/or working on saying "Shhh" or "Shhh, frog didn't make a sound" when that part comes up in the story.

Do you have a student who is non-verbal?No problem. Program a voice recording button or use the voice memo on your phone or iPad to say the phrase so every time the phrase comes up in the story your non-verbal student can contribute at the same time as their verbal peers.

I prefer to use a voice recording button for this activity, but I figured I would show you with the voice memo on my phone since mobile device and iPads maybe more readily available. Note: You can also tape little visuals in your book where the repetitive phrases come in so students can see when it is their turn visually. A great self control activity to wait for the button visual!

This page also has a velcro bug. We do that in our mini-version as another way for students to interact with the vocabulary, attend to task, and know how long they need to attend to the story. All the characters are on a velcro strip and get pulled off and put into the story as it appears.

Now moving on to other books and a new strategy, Narration. Vanessa Levin shared that "Narrating or retelling helps children understand what a story is about and how story structure works. Children enjoy retelling stories independently in centers using tools and props such as flannel boards and puppets."

The final strategy is Wordless Picture Books! Vanessa shared in her blog that "Nothing is more interactive, motivating, and engaging than inviting a child to tell you the story they see in the pictures using their own words."

I totally agree. But what if a student does not have verbal communication? How can it be done then? Through aided language boards!! They are systems I have come to know through the work of Gayle Porter and Linda Burkhardt in their work creating Pragmatic Organizational Dynamic Display. You can see more regarding aided language boards by clicking to this past posts on communication supports. The video below demonstrates my son working through a story using pictures to retell it. Note: To stay with the Icky Sticky Frog theme, I chose to use the book and just place sticky notes over the words.

(Even though my son is not nonverbal, I asked him to play the part so you can get an idea of how it might work.)

Some teachers are reluctant to use visuals such as this because they want their students to talk, rather than point however research shows that visual support facilitate communication. I use aided language boards and other visuals with many students regardless if they have language deficits or not as the support helps the students come up with the words to retell the story and builds literacy. Remember visual supports are easier to fade than verbal ones so if you have to help a student retell the story by doing so with visuals instead of words, they will become independent more quickly!

Until next time...Happy reading aloud!

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Strategies for Reading Aloud for Non-Verbal Students and Children with Special Needs

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A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet Vanessa Levin of Pre-K Pages and Deborah Stewart of Teach Preschool. They "wowed" me with their experiences, love, and excitement for preschool during their presentation entitled, "Wow Your Crowd with a Read Aloud" at NAEYC.

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3 Ideas To Increase Retelling Skills In Young Readers - Miss DeCarbo

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Let’s chat about literacy today. Specifically, let’s talk about retelling! Retelling is one of the first reading skills I focus on with my students. We spend...

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3 Ideas To Increase Retelling Skills In Young Readers

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Exit Slips | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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Exit slips are written student responses to questions teachers pose at the end of a class or lesson. These quick, informal assessments enable teachers to quickly assess students’ understanding of the material.

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Picture Sequences For Story Retell Worksheets & Teaching Resources | TpT

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Browse picture sequences for story retell resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources.

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How to Teach Retell Strategies using Technology

Today I'm sharing something that has puzzled me for quite some time: how to teach retell strategies using technology! We'll go over how to use Boom Cards or Google™ Classroom so students can read or listen to fairy tales, practice identifying characters or setting, place the major events in order, and so much more!

School Closures due to COVID19

I came up with this idea when schools were closed due to COVID19. Not all of my students have Internet or a device to use, so I began by creating hands-on activities which were almost like a condensed version of my differentiated morning boxes. These were so fun to prep and send home for students.

Distance Learning Packets

Hands-on Activities (Say no to too many worksheets!)

Each bag contained a box (you could also use a sandwich sized plastic bag) that included I can statement cards so the parents knew exactly what objectives to work on, small cards for students to practice months worth of skills, and so much more! The cards are purposefully smaller than the morning boxes so that even if you sent home ALL of the skills, you would only have to print 15 pages for each child and you could choose color or B & W. I think that's a pretty low number for hundreds of cards & activities! You can head here to read more about what is included in those.

These boxes have been so helpful for me and my students. I plan to use these next year as optional "Homework Boxes".

"Homework" Boxes

These pictures give you a little bit of an idea of what is included. On a normal school schedule, I will just send one or two task cards along with the smaller activity cards so parents can really focus on a small amount of skills and each child's will be different depending on what they need to work on. Talk about differentiation!

Free Miss You Cards

Be sure to read through to the end of this blog post so you can grab your free postcards shown above! You can tuck them in with packets or send them to students in the mail!

Retell Strategies using Technology

I knew I needed to work on essential reading strategies with my students but couldn't figure out how I would work on these objectives without physically being with them. The major question was how could I teach retell strategies using technology? Hence, the idea for interactive fairy tales was born!

Interactive Fairy Tales

I've made interactive fairy tales, developed questions and answers about character and setting, and even given children chances to place major events in order all while using Boom Cards or Google™ Classroom! This idea makes them feel very game-like. You KNOW I love to use games in the classroom!

Characters, Setting, and Major Events

I love the idea of students reading or listening to the complete fairy tale and then retelling the fairy tale on their own. Students can move the characters around as they retell the story, just like if they were using puppets! For example, as Goldilocks tries out the 3 chairs, the children can move her to each chair as they tell the story. Finally, the slides conclude with several questions about characters, setting, order of events, and so much more!

Boom Learning

The fairy tales are read aloud to students if you decide to use Boom Cards. Boom Cards are also self-checking. I personally prefer using this type because I find them to be very student-friendly. It's so nice when I'm working with students that they can complete the entire deck without ever bothering me when I'm doing small group instruction. This is all because of the integrated sound and the fact that they are self-checking. Remember when I said even more skills were included? In the fairy tale bundle, students can work on ordering objects by size, one-to-one correspondence, compound words, and so much more!

Try the Boom Cards out Yourself!

Guess what? You can listen in to a little of the story, look through, and then try moving the characters on the first 4 slides of the set above by clicking here!

Google™ Slides Version

I do realize that not everyone prefers Boom Decks. Some of you are already using Google™ Classroom or Google™ Drive with your students. You may prefer the decks I've made to use with Google™ Slides. One bonus of using this version is that every deck includes some simple sentences for students to unscramble.

What Teachers are Saying

I was thrilled that other teachers are so excited about these too. Trust me, there have been many times where I was super pumped about a new product only to realize it wasn't what teachers were really needing at the moment. WOMP! WOMP! (I definitely said that in a Charlie Brown teacher voice!)

Here are just a few reviews on these new resources!

"I LOVE the auditory component to this set!!! Many families are looking for independent learning activities during this time when they are working from home, as well. Kindergarten kids are often NOT able to read the question or the response. Thank you for adding this EXTRA feature to your bundle. I wish all BOOM card decks had this NECESSARY piece of instruction. Looking forward to more of your BOOM card creations!" -Holly

"I am a huge fairy tale fan! I love re reading a book all week and the class being so excited to act out the characters. My daughter (5 year old preschooler this year) has been enjoying the boom activities - she is so excited to complete the task on each card. " -Kara

"I just bought this bundle. This is by far THE BEST BOOM CARD stack that I have bought to date. I LOVE the auditory component, story element questions, numeral bean sort, and compound words. Please create more... just like this... GREAT JOB!" - Bill

What Else is Included

I didn't even mention that you will also receive lots of other printables you can use when you are back together with your kids (or you have my permission to email them to parents!) Some of the bonus items include puppets, masks, word wall lists, word wall cards, differentiated writing prompts, apology letter & card templates from Jack to the Giant and from Goldilocks to the Three Bears, and so much more!

Where to Find These

You can take a look at all of my resources created specifically for Google™ Classroom here or for Boom Learning here! You can purchase the fairy tales separately or as a bundle. I'm creating 3 bundles - Classic Fairy Tales (which you've seen pictures of in this post), Royal Fairy Tales (can you guess what's included???), and Forgotten Fairy Tales (So much fun!).

Don't forget to grab your free Miss You postcards here!

Happy Teaching & Mommy-ing this week friends!

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Retell Strategies using Technology for Young Children - Pencils to Pigtails

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Today I'm sharing something that has puzzled me for quite some time: how to teach retell strategies using technology! We'll go over how to use Boom Cards or Google™ Classroom so students can read or listen to fairy tales, practice identifying characters or setting, place the major events in order, and so much more!

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ASSESSING COMPREHENSION: STORY RETELLING CHART AND MAZE

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In many ESL textbooks, you'll probably notice that many of the activities are more focused on accuracy. This makes a lot of sense. They're easier to set up, and they're also easier for the teacher to evaluate.However, we need to incorporate fluency activities into our language classes as well. Retell the story is one way to do that!

There are lots of story retell activities to consider trying out but this one is my favourite. Keep on reading for all the details about how to use it with your students to get them speaking more quickly in English! It works well for an in-class activity or you may want to consider it for online English teaching.

An Introduction to Retell the Story

Skills: Speaking

Time: 15-20 minutes

Level: Beginner to Advanced, 8+

Materials Required: Timer

This is a fluency activity which can be done with beginners by having them introduce themselves. Higher level students can tell a story they know or recap a story that was covered in class. Give the students a bit of time to think about what they're going to say; the lower the level of students, the more time they will need.

Working in pairs, each student will tell the same story three times. The first time, they will each speak for one minute. Then, have the students switch partners. With their second partner, each person will tell the same story, but add more detail, so they speak for two minutes.

Again, everyone will switch partners. The third time they tell their story, everyone should speak for three minutes.

You might need to reduce these times for beginner students if they are struggling to keep talking. With an advanced English class, you might want to reverse the order to 3-2-1, in order to help them focus on retelling only the most important parts of the story and working on fluency.

Teaching Tip for Retell the Story:

An orderly way to have students quickly switch partners for this activity is to have only half of the students move. If your students sit in rows, have even numbered rows move up one seat. If your students sit in blocks of four, number the students 1-2-3-4, and instruct which numbers to switch seats.

You can also make this into more of a listening activity by requiring the person who is listening to the story to think of between 1 and 3 follow-up questions (depending on the time you have for the activity).

Procedure for this Story Retelling Activity: 3 2 1

1. The teacher can do a demonstration, telling either a story or introducing themselves.

2. Divide students into pairs after giving them a minute or two to think of a story to tell.

3. Tell students which partner will go first (ie: students on the right) and start the timer for one minute. When time is up, start the timer for the second partner.

4. Instruct the students who spoke first to move to the seat in front of theirs (or according to your classroom configuration), set the timer for two minutes, and complete round two.

5. After both partners have had a turn, have the same students move again, set the timer for three minutes, and complete round three.

6. (Optional) Have the student who is listening ask some follow-up questions during this story retell activity

More Ideas for Story Retelling Activities

If you're looking for some more ideas for story retelling that won't put your students to sleep, try out some of these fun ideas and tips:

Give students a reason to retell the story

Provide some structure for students

Let students tell the story in a way that makes sense to them

Consider using some props, photos and sticky notes

Use a story puzzle

Do a news interview activity based on the story

Retelling a Story Worksheets

There are lots of great resources online that you might want to consider using with your students. Here are some of the best retell a story worksheets:
English Worksheets Have Fun Teaching Education.com
Like One of the Best Retelling Story Activities?

Yes? Thought so.

It's certainly one of the best retell activities if your students want to speak more fluently. If you like this ESL speaking activity that focuses on fluency, then you're going to love this book over on Amazon: 101 ESL Activities for Teenagers and Adults.

There are dozens of top-quality activities that you can use in your classes today. The best part is that the book is well-organized into sections: reading, writing, speaking, listening, 4-skills, review, icebreakers, etc. so that you should be able to easily find what you're looking for in just a minute or two.

The book is available in both digital and print formats. The digital one can be read on any device by downloading the free Kindle reading app.

Keep a copy on the bookshelf in your office as a handy reference guide. Or, take a copy with you to your favourite coffee shop for lesson planning on the go.

Yes, it really is that easy to have more interesting and engaging English lessons. Check out the book for yourself here but only if you want to get yourself a serious dose of ESL teaching awesome in your life:

Another Speaking Fluency Activity

Besides Retell the Story, Just a Minute is another one of my go-to activities for practicing speaking fluency. You can learn more about it here:

Have your Say about this Fluency Activity for ESL Students!

What are one or two of your favourite activities to help get your students speaking English more fluently? Or, what do you think about this story retell activity? Leave a comment below and share your tips with us. We'd love to hear from you.

Also be sure to give this article a share on Pinterest, Twitter, or Facebook. It'll help other busy teachers, like yourself find this useful teaching resource.

Last update on 2020-11-28 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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Retell the Story | Speaking Fluency Activity for ESL Students

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In many ESL textbooks , you'll probably notice that many of the activities are more focused on accuracy. This makes a lot of sense. They're easier to set up, and they're also easier for the teacher to evaluate.However, we need to incorporate fluency activities into our language classes as well.

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Kristen Baker's ESL Class - First Month with iPads!

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Once my beginning English language learners have built some vocabulary and are able to decode their emergent level books, it is time to tackle the skill of retelling. It truly is the basis of reading comprehension. Plus, it's an excellent way to build their oral language skills!

My upper elementary newcomers have been in school here for seven months. They've been busy building their knowledge of basic (and content) vocabulary, focusing on spelling patterns in Word Study and learning many sight words in context. It is now officially spring (YAY!), and the school year is on a fast downward-slope.

To get my beginning ELLs ready for their end of the year reading assessment, the one that measures their reading progress for the year, they must learn how to retell a fictional story.

Over the past few months I've been introducing and reinforcing the various parts of a story. My students have learned about "characters" and "setting," and we've talked about story "problems" and "solutions."

The next step is to retell a story from beginning, middle and end. Depending on my students, I may need to scaffold the activity by using picture cards. They use these cards to sequence events and recall details. Although I am giving them the important events in pictures, they will use their oral language skills to recount the events.

Once I feel that they have a solid grasp on retelling a story, I have a couple more questions that I need to teach how to respond. Students have to be able think beyond the text, so I want them to be able to 1- describe their favorite part in the story and explain why it's their favorite, AND 2- make a meaningful connection to the story. This usually doesn't take much more than me modeling for them. Usually;)

During this past quarter, each time we finished a guided reading book, I'd ask them to orally share their favorite part and explain why, AND make a connection to the story. Sometimes they share whole group, and other times they turn and tell a partner.

My "newcomer group" practices the skill of retelling frequently, but we do it in different ways in order to keep it fun, engaging and challenging. An additional activity I like to use is this "Read and Roll" activity.

They love it, I think, because they get to roll big dice! Once big dice enter the picture, somehow it turns into a game! I love it too because it gets them talking about the various parts of their book. I'm always looking for ways to get my students TALKING about their reading. I know that this solidifies their understanding AND builds their oral proficiency skills, plus they get a lot out of hearing their group members talk about the story too.

My students also love these retelling cards. I pass one or two cards to each student and they take turns asking each other questions about their story.

A super easy way to get students talking about their books is by creating a "Discussion Starters" anchor chart. Sentence starters are a great support for your beginning ELLs.

When I first introduced the chart, I asked the questions, but once they had some practice with it, I turned it over to them to ask each other the questions. They always start with the person's name they are directing their question to. The person responding always starts their response with the person's name who asked the question. For example...

Angie - Student 1: "Michael, tell me about your favorite part."
Michael - Student 2: "Angie, my favorite part is..."

Since Michael was the one who just answered a question, he is the one to ask the next student a question. I'm telling you, they love this!

I'm going to be honest here... I had zero time to prep a detailed lesson on this day, so I grabbed a bag of books and off I went. Luckily, I always have big and small post-it notes in my caddie, so I grabbed these BIG neon colored post-it notes and wrote a B-M-E on them. Viola! My students slapped these into their reading notebooks and we were all set! Sometimes, lessons off the cuff turn out to be really good lessons, right?!

I also like to use a Story Map graphic organizer to help students organize the parts of their story. They use this to "share out" at the end of our lesson. Usually I'll have each student pick one part to share out. They might share out to the group, while other times they might share out with a partner, depending on the time.
There are lots of ways to develop retelling skills, and I recommend using different strategies and methods to get students comfortable with the various components of this skill. For beginning ELLs, of course they are just learning this new language while simultaneously learning the skills needed to orally retell a story, so lots of scaffolds and supports along the way are a must.

We know that the achievement gap can be great for beginning ELLs, and that their reading comprehension skills moving forward will depend on their ability to recall and retell stories, and other types of texts. Focusing on this skill from the get-go is essential in getting our newcomers to where they need to be in a few short years. As soon as they have enough vocabulary to talk about their emergent level books, start explicitly teaching and reinforcing "how to retell."

Here are some of the resources I use to teach retelling skills. (My intermediate ELLs love the Retelling Practice for Fiction cards and the Read and Roll activity as well.)

Credit: the "dot dudes" graphic in the title is by
Sarah Pecorino.

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Teaching Beginning English Language Learners How To Retell

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Once my beginning English language learners have built some vocabulary and are able to decode their emergent level books, it is time to tackle the skill of retelling. It truly is the basis of reading comprehension. Plus, it's an excellent way to build their oral language skills!